A Brook in the

City
By Robert Frost
The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square
With the new city street it has to wear
A number in. But what about the brook
That held the house as in an elbow-crook?
I ask as one who knew the brook, its strength
And impulse, having dipped a finger length
And made it leap my knuckle, having tossed
A flower to try its currents where they crossed.
The meadow grass could be cemented down
From growing under pavements of a town;
The apple trees be sent to hearth-stone flame.
Is water wood to serve a brook the same?
How else dispose of an immortal force
No longer needed? Staunch it at its source
With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown
Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone
In fetid darkness still to live and run -And all for nothing it had ever done
Except forget to go in fear perhaps.
No one would know except for ancient maps
That such a brook ran water. But I wonder

If from its being kept forever under,

The thoughts may not have risen that so keep. This new-built city from both
work and sleep.

Back Exercise
Answer the Following
Questions In One word or
sentence
1. What, if any, is the significance
of the title of the poem?
2. Who is the speaker? What kind
of person is the speaker?
3.
Is there an identifiable
audience for the speaker? What
can we know about it (her, him)?
4.

What is the occasion?

5.
What is the setting in time
(hour,
season,
century,
and
political, social, religious beliefs)?
6 What is the setting in place
(indoors or out, city or country,
land or sea, region, nation)?